PABLO CUETO AMORSOLO

Pablo Amorsolo was the son of Pedro Amorsolo and Bonifacio Cueto. When he was eight, his family went to Manila where he studied drawing under his uncle, Fabian de la Rosa. He completed elementary and secondary school at the Liceo de Manila, and graduated from the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Fine Arts in 1924.

Two Years later he was appointed assistant instructor in the school where he taught until World War II broke out.

An admirer of classical art, Amorsolo was also a strong advocate of modern art. In the 1930s he was a prolific illustrator who created editorial illustrations in pen and ink for such publications as the Graphic, Tribune, La Vanguardia, the Herald, and others, He also served as artist for the Manila Times His illustrations, which portrayed a wide variety of domestic and social situations, contributed to the rise of genre art in the Philippines.

When portraits were in vogue during the prewar years, Amorsolo was one of the best portrait painters. His skilled brushwork could breathe life into his subjects, which he painted truthfully and without idealization. He painted subjects from all social classes and age levels; it was in these portraits that he showed his deep understanding of individuals.

Historical subjects also interested him, as evidenced by his painting “Magellan and the Natives” and in his large-scale masterpiece “The Discovery of the Philippines,” painted in 1944.

Few of Pablo Armsolo’s paintings are extant because a large number of his works were destroyed in a fire in 1945. He served as a colonel in the Kempetai. When the Americans returned he was captured by Philippine troops and was executed by a guerilla firing squad in Antipolo.

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